Introducing VisualCube - Dynamic Cube Images

[TheMachanga]

I'm having trouble with that. I downloaded it, and now what? I just get the winrawr crap and just a bunch of codes.

 

[Cyrus C.]

I'm having trouble with that. I downloaded it, and now what? I just get the winrawr crap and just a bunch of codes.

You don't need to download anything. You change the web address.

 

[TheMachanga]

I'm having trouble with that. I downloaded it, and now what? I just get the winrawr crap and just a bunch of codes.

You don't need to download anything. You change the web address.

Point my browser?

 

[Cyrus C.]

I'm having trouble with that. I downloaded it, and now what? I just get the winrawr crap and just a bunch of codes.

You don't need to download anything. You change the web address.

Point my browser?

Do you see the codes below that, you add those after it & it will link you to an image of that cube.

 

[macky]

Thank you very much for this, Conrad. It saved me a lot of time when making my F2L page.

I uploaded the VisualCube folder to my host here. I made the following minor modifications:
- added stage masks 'f2l[br/bl/fr/fl]' for F2L with the the two letter slot empty
- add stage mask 'wv' (winter variation) for F2L and the last layer stickers (so also for MGLS and a lot of last layer control techniques)
- default color scheme and cube color, set here, can be retrieved from cookies. This should be useful for F2L and CLL.
For the other parameters, I think having a separate configuration file with default values would be nice.

I'm not sure what I should put down in the source code under the GNU license and how/if I should make the changes available, so let me know if there's a problem.

 

[Cride5]

Thank you very much for this, Conrad. It saved me a lot of time when making my F2L page.

I uploaded the VisualCube folder to my host here. I made the following minor modifications:
- added stage masks 'f2l[br/bl/fr/fl]' for F2L with the the two letter slot empty
- add stage mask 'wv' (winter variation) for F2L and the last layer stickers (so also for MGLS and a lot of last layer control techniques)
- default color scheme and cube color, set here, can be retrieved from cookies. This should be useful for F2L and CLL.
For the other parameters, I think having a separate configuration file with default values would be nice.

I'm not sure what I should put down in the source code under the GNU license and how/if I should make the changes available, so let me know if there's a problem.

Hi Macky, the changes you've made sound good so I'd be happy to update the main source with them if that's OK with you. I'll send a PM...

I noticed that cubes generated from your server are rendering without antialiasing (giving a pixely appearance). Normally these rendering issues are related to the version of ImageMagick being used to generate the images. If you update ImageMagick on your server it should improve the rendering.

 

[Coisox]

Thank you very much. I love it! Awesome! Very impressive. Never thought people will create a tools which let user set parameters directly in the URL (as oppose to drop list or radio button). Creative and clean. What more to say?

 

[Cride5]

I've just completed a major update to VisualCube.

New features:
* Algs now applicable to NxNxN cubes (and cTimer now does scramble images for 2x2 to 7x7)
* Much wider range of stage masks, with the ability to rotate them
* Style variables configurable via cookies. Thanks to Macky for his contribution to this feature.

Latest version @ http://cube.crider.co.uk/visualcube.php
.. source also updated on sourceforge.

Although some testing has been done, there may still be bugs. Let me know if you find any, cheers.

 

[xbrandationx]

This is really cool ive been playing with it for hours now

 

[StachuK1992]

yay!
Lots of new masks! Nice.

 

[Carrot]

I've just completed a major update to VisualCube.

New features:
* Algs now applicable to NxNxN cubes (and cTimer now does scramble images for 2x2 to 7x7)
* Much wider range of stage masks, with the ability to rotate them
* Style variables configurable via cookies. Thanks to Macky for his contribution to this feature.

Latest version @ http://cube.crider.co.uk/visualcube.php
.. source also updated on sourceforge.

Although some testing has been done, there may still be bugs. Let me know if you find any, cheers.

I can't generate anything bigger than 10x10x10 :'(

 

[Cride5]

I've just completed a major update to VisualCube.

New features:
* Algs now applicable to NxNxN cubes (and cTimer now does scramble images for 2x2 to 7x7)
* Much wider range of stage masks, with the ability to rotate them
* Style variables configurable via cookies. Thanks to Macky for his contribution to this feature.

Latest version @ http://cube.crider.co.uk/visualcube.php
.. source also updated on sourceforge.

Although some testing has been done, there may still be bugs. Let me know if you find any, cheers.

I can't generate anything bigger than 10x10x10 :'(

I set that as a limit on my server to prevent visualcube from hogging processor cycles at the expense of other clients. If you download the source from sourceforge you can run your own visualcube server and raise the limit arbitrarily.

 

[Cride5]

VisualCube Now Does Arrows

This has been requested a fair bit, so I've decided to add it...

Example:

visualcube.gif?alg=S2M2E2&arw=U0U2-s7,U2U8-s7,U8U0,R6R2R0-s8-i5-yellow


Currently permutation arrows need to be defined manually, but if I find the time I may implement a view option which allows them to be automatically drawn, based on cubie permutation...

 

[Patiño]

Great stuff, Cride5! The cubes look really nice. What I'd love as the next feature is to be able to see the back and left layers (Something like this, only prettier)

Good job!

 

[Cride5]

Hi Patiño, nice idea ... I'll put it on the todo list.

I was also going to do a 'folded out' view as well - like this. These shouldn't be too hard to implement, it's just a case of finding some free time!

Cheers for the suggestion.

 

[AndyK]

The arrows are sooo awesome! Thanks man.

 

[StachuK1992]

Hi Patiño, nice idea ... I'll put it on the todo list.

I was also going to do a 'folded out' view as well - like this. These shouldn't be too hard to implement, it's just a case of finding some free time!

Cheers for the suggestion.

If you find that you pretty much have no spare time, and if you have something not too complicated on said to-do list, I'd probably have fun trying it out, all-the-while helping you out.

I was thinking of making a GUI.
Such that there would be textfields for
-alg/case
-color scheme
-size
-etc

Drop-down selections for
-format
-stage
-view
-puzzle
-etc

rather than just typing URLs over and over.

Basically, it would be a more advanced "chooser" than on my alg trainer, without timing.

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Stachu

 

[Cride5]

I was thinking of making a GUI.

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Stachu

Hi Stachu, yes that sounds like it would be useful. I would prefer to keep the VisualCube script separate from anything designed to make calls to it though. If you want to build an html page using javascript to set up script variables and generate images that would probably be ideal. Have a look at my cTimer app, to see examples of JavaScript-based calls to VisualCube.

Good luck!

 

[StachuK1992]

I was thinking of making a GUI.

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Stachu

Hi Stachu, yes that sounds like it would be useful. I would prefer to keep the VisualCube script separate from anything designed to make calls to it though. If you want to build an html page using javascript to set up script variables and generate images that would probably be ideal. Have a look at my cTimer app, to see examples of JavaScript-based calls to VisualCube.

Good luck!

I've already made calls to VisualCube
In the link I posted - just click begin on it, and you'll see.

And I'll get working to it fairly soon.

Stachu

 

[macky]

[edit]
This was a response to Sarah's deleted post. But maybe someone else will find it useful.
[/edit]

I thought this was my fault, but the mask is correct. You see that the two 'images' actually differ if you add a y2:

alg=y'FRUR'y'R'U'y2&stage=els

alg=y'FRUR'y'R'U'y2&stage=vh


So, tips:

(1) Make sure there's no net rotation in the sequence.
(2) Use 'case=' instead of 'alg='. The former displays the state that is solved by the sequence.

[edit]
So I think you want these:

case=URyRU'R'F'y'&stage=els

case=URyRU'R'F'y'&stage=vh